Give me a sec to explain before you get scared off this post (you will be thankful).

Ok so I didn’t hit my head and decide to bake a cake with the first 2 ingredients that popped in my head. Believe it or not there are many versions of a ‘Coca-Cola’ cake. And I promise I wouldn’t post a recipe on my site unless the recipe was super awesome.

I also thought that this was taking things a little too far and it would be a disaster waiting to happen. But I promise you that was not the case. The outcome was the most moist and intense chocolate flavoured cake I have had in a while. The cola must intensify the chocolate flavour as only 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder go into this cake and no actual chocolate. Personally I couldn’t taste the Cola, the only remnants of it being there was an ever so slight cola after taste as such (which was surprisingly quite pleasant).

If you didn’t know it wasn’t a plain chocolate mud cake you would be none the wiser. Having said this though I did get feedback from people saying they could taste a little of the cola…each to their own I suppose.

Ingredients:

220g plain flour

250g white sugar

1/2 tsn bicarbonate of soda

1/4 tsn salt salt

1 egg

125g milk

1 tsn vanilla essense

125g butter

2 tbsn cocoa powder

190ml Coca-Cola

250g icing sugar

1 tbsn butter

4 tbsn coco-cola

1 tbsn cocoa powder

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180c and place in a baking tray. Line a 20cm cake tin with baking paper.

In a saucepan on low add the butter, cocoa and Coca-Cola until the butter is melted.

Add the butter mix to the dry bowl, stir until combined. Now add the milk mix to the bowl, beat with electric mixer until smooth.

Pour into cake tin and place onto tray. Bake for 50 minutes or until skewer comes out clean.

Let it cool for 10 minutes then place on a cooling rack to cool.

To make the icing melt butter in the microwave. Once melted add coco-cola and cocoa, stir until smooth, add vanilla.

Stir in the icing sugar until cominbed then beat until thick and glossy. Set aside for 15 mins to cool and thicken.

Spread over cooled cake.

Notes:

I used gluten free plain all-purpose flour. I think this was a contributor to the cake being so moist and mud cake like.

I split the cake in half and spread half the icing in the center of the cake and the rest I pipped on top of the cake.

The cake is so rich that I don’t actually believe you need the icing, as an alternative I would serve this with a dollop of cream instead.

Only 250g of sugar is in this cake and no chocolate as the cola is quite sweet already, therefore making the cake extra sweet.

I used diet Coke when I made this as this is what I had in my cupboard, however if you are a fan of cherries you could use Dr. Pepper or Lemon twist Coca-Cola for example for a little hit of complementary favour fusion with the chocolate.

I promise you Choux pastry is not hard at all! My custard filling recipe is much lower in fat and can be done in the microwave in seconds!

This is definitely an impressive traditional French sweet treat that I have made a little healthier. Traditionally these are filled with whipped cream, ice-cream or pastry cream.

These are the little gems that create the famous (thanks Masterchef) Croquembouche.

Ingredients:

Pastry

1 cup water

1/3 cup butter

1 cup plain flour

2 tbs white sugar

¼ tsn salt

4 eggs

Custard

1 cup skim milk

6 tbsn custard powder

6 tbsn white sugar

Chocolate top

200g dark chocolate

50g butter

Method:

Preheat the oven to 200c.

Bring the water and butter to the boil in a saucepan on the stove to a medium heat. Once at a boil add the flour, sugar and salt stirring with a wooden spoon for 5 minutes or until the mix comes away from the side of the pan.

Take off the heat, wait 5 minutes and beat the eggs in one at a time. The mix will now resemble dough.

Line 2 baking trays with baking paper.

Using a piping bag with a large tip pipe 16 puffs in the size of golf balls leaving 5 cm apart on the 2 trays.

Place the 2 trays in the oven and bake for 10 minutes.

Decrease the oven temperature down to 190c and bake for a further 20 minutes until the pastry is golden and all puffed up.

Turn off the oven. With a knife cut a slit I the top of each puff and leave them in the oven to dry out for 10 minutes. Following place on a cooling rack to cool.

To prepare the custard place all ingredients in a microwave safe bowl. Whisk well.

Microwave for 2 minutes on high, then whisk. Cook for a further 30 seconds and whisk. Repeat until the custard is super thick and glossy. Leave to cool. The custard should be thick enough to easily hold its shape.

With another piping bag and a medium star tip fill with the cooled custard.

Pipe the custard into each puff.

Melt the butter in a microwave safe bowl until bubbling. Add in the chocolate, microwave for 30 seconds. Stir with a metal spoon until thick and glossy.

Dip the puff into the chocolate topping and set aside to harden up prior to serving.

Notes:

This is quite impressive but does take a while to work through each of the processes.

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